Great West Life Assurance Co. Can Takes $3.05 Million Position in Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH)

Great West Life Assurance Co. Can bought a new stake in shares of Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH – Get Rating) in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 43,438 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,052,000. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can owned 0.12% of Meritage Homes at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 31.1% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 30,560 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $2,216,000 after purchasing an additional 7,245 shares during the period. Ziegler Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Meritage Homes by 2.6% in the second quarter. Ziegler Capital Management LLC now owns 14,005 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,015,000 after acquiring an additional 354 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Meritage Homes by 1.6% in the second quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 47,960 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $3,477,000 after acquiring an additional 734 shares during the period. Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new stake in Meritage Homes in the second quarter worth about $1,413,000. Finally, Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC lifted its stake in Meritage Homes by 110.8% in the second quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC now owns 51,158 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $3,709,000 after acquiring an additional 26,895 shares during the period. 95.63% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Meritage Homes Stock Performance

MTH opened at $102.83 on Wednesday. Meritage Homes Co. has a 52-week low of $62.51 and a 52-week high of $107.72. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The company has a market cap of $3.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.97 and a beta of 1.52. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $91.83 and its 200-day moving average price is $83.21.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 26th. The construction company reported $7.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.41 by $0.69. Meritage Homes had a net margin of 16.68% and a return on equity of 29.08%. The firm had revenue of $1.58 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Meritage Homes Co. will post 26.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on MTH shares. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Meritage Homes from $87.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 12th. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Meritage Homes from $87.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Meritage Homes from $78.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 22nd. StockNews.com raised shares of Meritage Homes from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 10th. Finally, TheStreet raised shares of Meritage Homes from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meritage Homes presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $97.00.

About Meritage Homes

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Meritage Homes Corp. designs and builds single family homes. It offers variety of entry-level and first move-up homes. The firm operates through the following segments: Homebuilding and Financial Services. The Homebuilding segment acquires constructs and markets single-detached houses. The Financial Services segment includes the operations of the company’s subsidiary, Carefree Title.